Bluetooth® Low Energy (“BLE” or “Bluetooth® Smart”) is a particular type of wireless communication technology that consumes only a fraction of the power of classic Bluetooth® radios. In this regard, BLE is designed especially for short-to-moderate-range point-to-point communication between two or more BLE enabled devices. The BLE enabled devices comprise BLE peripheral devices (“BLE beacons”) and BLE central devices (“BLE hubs”). A BLE beacon is often a fixed or mobile electronic device powered by a coin-cell battery, which transmits a periodic code. A BLE hub is often a mobile device (e.g., a smart phone) or gateway to a Local Area Network (“LAN”) or WiFi network. The BLE enabled devices can have a range up to 200 feet and beyond (particularly where longer ranges are desired, such as in sensor applications).
BLE link technology has traditionally been applied to problems such as smart signs, health data monitoring (i.e., wireless attachment to medical equipment) and access control. BLE link technology operates in the 2.400 GHz-2.4835 GHz ISM band, but uses a different set of channels than the classic Bluetooth® technology. Within a channel, data is transmitted using Guassian frequency shift modulation. BLE supports very short data packets (8-27 octets) that are transferred at a bit rate of 1 Mbps. The maximum transmit power of a BLE enable device is 10 mW.